Playing like favorites, Predators continue to find ways to win in playoffs
NASHVILLE — Defenseman Mattias Ekholm’s read of the Nashville Predators’ dressing room between the second and third periods was that players felt “something better was coming.”
The Predators had outshot the Anaheim Ducks 28-13 over the first 40 minutes. They were playing the way they wanted to play. They were feeding off the raucous Nashville crowd. It made no sense that they were trailing 1-0.
“Their goaltender (John Gibson) played real well,” Predators center Mike Fisher said. “We were getting chances. Sometimes it’s easy to get frustrated. But that’s not the right emotion. We stayed with it. We knew if we kept doing that, and not sit back, we would find a way.”
That’s exactly what happened. They found a way. Filip Forsberg and Roman Josi scored third-period goals to lift the Predators to a 2-1 victory. Nashville now owns a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
“Going into that third, guys were saying the right things,” Nashville coach Peter Laviolette said. “They were confident. They believed they were playing a decent game, and if we just stayed with it we would eventually get one to drop.”
The Predators are now 10-3 in this postseason, and 6-0 at home. Somewhere in this process they have made the transition from a team hoping to win a Stanley Cup to a group of players who understand they have a true opportunity to get it done.
For the first time in franchise history, the Predators have a postseason swagger. They have gone from hoping to win playoff games to expecting to win them.
It has helped that the City of Nashville is smitten with the Predators’ success. Other NHL arenas might be able to match the crowd boost the Predators had Tuesday, but it would difficult to surpass it.
“It’s tough to put in words,” Josi said. “You’ve got to be here to feel the energy. It’s unbelievable. Our fans, they’re amazing. Like every time they stand up they just keep cheering and cheering. I haven’t been in a building that has that much energy.”
Every time the Predators have lost a game in this postseason, they have come back with a win. They lost Game 2 in Anaheim, and followed that up with this come-from-behind effort.
“We wanted to play better defensively tonight and I thought we did,” Josi said. “We did a good job. And this team has done a really good job so far in the playoffs of rebounding.”
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More than anything else, the Predators are behaving like a favorite. They're finding different ways of getting the desired results. Sometimes it’s goaltending. Sometimes it’s defense. Sometimes it’s opportunistic scoring.
Coaches say regularly that the star players have to play like stars to have a successful playoff run, and the Predators' stars are delivering. That was Forsberg’s team-leading sixth goal of the postseason.
“He scores a lot of goals,” Laviolette said. “And not just ones that get us back in the game. He scores in different ways at different times. That’s what he does. He’s good at it.”
That also is a description of the Predators in these playoffs. They win at different times in different ways. They are good at it.